non generis dono, non ambitione potitus. digna legi virtus. ultro se purpura supplex obtulit et solus meruit regnare rogatus. nam cum barbaries penitus commota gementem inrueret Rhodopen et mixto turbine gentes 50 jam deserta suas in nos transfunderet Arctos, Danuvii totae vomerent cum proelia ripae, cum Geticis ingens premeretur Mysia plaustris flavaque Bistonios operirent agmina campos, omnibus adflictis et vel labentibus ictu 55 vel prope casuris: unus tot funera contra restitit extinxitque faces agrisque colonos reddidit et leti rapuit de faucibus urbes. nulla relicta foret Romani nominis umbra, ni pater ille tuus iamiam ruitura subisset 60 pondera turbatamque ratem certaque levasset naufragium commune manu: velut ordine rupto cum procul insanae traherent Phaëthonta quadrigae saeviretque dies terramque et stagna propinqui haurirent radii, solito cum murmure torvis 65 sol occurrit equis; qui postquam rursus eriles agnovere sonos, rediit meliore magistro machina concentusque poli, currusque recepit imperium flammaeque modum. Sic traditus ille servatusque Oriens. at non pars altera rerum 70 tradita: bis possessa manu, bis parta periclis. per varium gemini scelus erupere tyranni tractibus occiduis: hunc saeva Britannia fudit; * * * * * Page 291 of birth or from lust of power. It was his own merit secured his election. Unsought the purple begged his acceptance of itself; he alone when asked to rule was worthy to do so. For when unrest at home drove barbarian hordes over unhappy Rhodope and the now deserted north had poured its tribes in wild confusion across our borders, when all the banks of Danube poured forth battles and broad Mysia rang beneath the chariots of the Getae, when flaxen-haired hordes covered the plains of Thrace and amid this universal ruin all was either prostrate or tottering to its fall, one man alone withstood the tide of disaster, quenched the flames, restored to the husbandmen their fields and snatched the cities from the very jaws of destruction. No shadow of Rome’s name had survived had not thy sire borne up the tottering mass, succoured the storm-tossed bark and with sure hand averted universal shipwreck. As when the maddened coursers broke from their path and carried Phaëthon far astray, when day’s heat grew fierce and the sun’s rays, brought near to earth, dried up both land and sea, Phoebus checked his fierce horses with his wonted voice; for they knew once more their master’s tones, and with a happier guide heaven’s harmonious order was restored; for now the chariot again accepted government and its fires control.